The increasing volume of road transport in the European Union poses several challenges. Road transport is responsible for most emissions of greenhouse gases and air pollutants from the transport sector as a whole. While road safety has improved in the EU over the past few decades, this trend has slowed down recently and it is unlikely that the EU will achieve its objective of a 50 % reduction in fatalities between 2010 and 2020. In addition, congested roads incur huge costs to the EU economy. Coordinated action across a number of fronts is required to tackle these issues and prevent them from bringing serious harm to Europe’s people, economy, environment and climate.
New technologies aimed at improving the efficiency, safety and environmental performance of road transport are playing a significant role in achieving the Commission’s goals in this area. One emerging field is that of cooperative intelligent transport systems (C-ITS), which enable vehicles to interact directly with each other and the surrounding road infrastructure. In road transport, C-ITS typically involves vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V), vehicle-to-infrastructure (V2I) and/or infrastructure-to-infrastructure (I2I) communication, and communication between vehicles and pedestrians or cyclists (‘vehicle-to-everything’, V2X). This enables a wide range of information and cooperation services. C-ITS are a category of ITS services, based on an open network that enables a many-to-many or peer-to-peer relationship between C-ITS stations. This means all C-ITS stations, as defined by this Regulation, can securely exchange messages with each other, and are not limited to exchanging messages with (a single) pre-defined station(s). ITS services which provide similar information, for instance over digital broadcast, cellular networks, or FM radio, but without the characteristics of an open network that enables a many-to-many or peer-to-peer relationship between C-ITS stations, are outside the scope of this Regulation. The benefits of C-ITS span a range of areas and include better road safety, less congestion, greater transport efficiency, mobility and service reliability, reduced energy use, fewer negative environmental impacts, and support for economic development.
The purpose of this Delegated Regulation supplementing Directive 2010/40/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council is to create the minimal legal requirements for interoperability for C-ITS and to enable large-scale deployment of C-ITS systems and services from 2019. Directive 2010/40/EU (the ITS Directive) represents a policy and legal framework to accelerate the deployment of innovative transport solutions across Europe. The Directive focuses on intelligent transport systems for road and its interface with other modes of transport and empowers the Commission to adopt delegated acts in four priority areas. The definition of specifications for C-ITS is part of priority area IV of the Directive. The focus of this Delegated Regulation is on ‘day 1’ services, i.e. C-ITS services to be deployed in the short term that will contribute particularly to road safety and traffic efficiency. Specifications and standards for interoperable priority ‘day 1’ services, and a common security solution are now available as a result of cooperation between a broad group of industry stakeholders and Member States’ authorities.
Click here for more information on the Delegated Act and to view the official document.
Source: European Commission
